WALL Facilitators

Lauren is an educator, facilitator, social justice activist, mother and dancer.  She draws on her background in intercultural communications, multicultural education and organizational development to create cross-cultural communication and diversity programs for organizations and educational institutions throughout the US.  In 1995, she co-founded coAction and for the past 12 years, has been providing professional development as well as school and community based trainings with an emphasis on race and ethnicity, white privilege, power and class, gender and homophobia. Her work has taken her to multiple venues including foundations, non-profit organizations, corporations, K-12 schools, universities and religious institutions.

Lauren is a dynamic and skilled facilitator who has witnessed the most powerful personal transformation and mutual understanding occurring when people share their stories and are heard.  Being able to partake in and practice dialogue about socially charged issues provides the confidence and skill-base for people to get though conflict. She is dedicated to the work of Bohmian Dialogue and providing the support and skills for organizations and schools to create “dialogic cultures.”  The benefits of creating working environments that expect to discuss the societal effects of race, gender and class both as individuals and collectively is an inclusive workplace of higher trust where critical thinking and rewarding communication become the norm.

Lauren has a BA in psychology from Western Washington University and a Master's degree in Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco.  She also holds a certificate in Diversity Management Strategies from San Francisco State University.  Her thesis, titled “White Educators Teaching about Race and Racism” is available online (www.antiracism.com). She speaks Japanese and her international experience includes teaching for 4 years in Northern Japan and traveling throughout Asia, the South Pacific, North and South America and Europe.

Kristin is a woman committed to creating a world that works for everyone. She has long been a facilitator and trainer, and loves helping groups find ways to move toward the goals of their good work more easily. She is currently engaged in learning, teaching and sharing compassionate Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

Since her first exposure to liberation work 18 years ago, she has made this central in her life, meeting needs for authentically contributing to healing and justice. Using this powerful framework, she found a way to cut through the cycle of violence in her work with runaway teens, abused kids, prisoners and their families. She joined and led the local Santa Cruz chapter of the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) training individuals and communities how to take action in the face of discrimination. In addition to this, she spent many years working with Lillian Roybal Rose in cross-cultural communications trainings, providing people with a framework to understand the many forms of oppression. Kristin is committed to being an ally against racism, anti-semitism and adultism and to developing allies as a working class lesbian. Raised in a loud working class family, she now enjoys being self employed as a trainer-facilitator-coach, following 20+ years working in non-profits and running a community center.

She enjoys contributing to the creation of a safe environment, one in which we choose to share, to heal, to learn from one other and to express what is alive in us as people who live in a world lacking the peace and justice we yearn for. A passionate advocate of creativity and justice, Kristin dreams of a time when each person knows they are beautiful, valuable, and that their contributions are important and well received.

Advisory Council: Roberto Almanzan & Jasmine Schlafke

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